Dyslexia Toolkit

Indicators

If a child has 3 or more of the following, encourage the parents and teachers to learn more about dyslexia.
  1. In Preschool
  2. delayed speech
  3. mixing up the sounds and syllables in long words
  4. chronic ear infections
  5. severe reactions to childhood illnesses
  6. constnat confusion of left versus right
  7. late establishing a dominant hand
  8. difficulty learning to tie shoes
  9. trouble memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet
  10. cannot create words that rhyme
  11. a close relative with dyslexia
  12. In Elementary School
  13. dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is difficult to read)
  14. letter or number reversals continuing past the end of first grade
  15. extreme difficulty learning cursive
  16. slow, choppy, inaccurate reading: guesses based on shape or context, skips or misreads prepositions (at, to of), ignores suffixes, cannot sound out unknown words
  17. terrible spelling
  18. often cannot remember sight words (they, were does) or homonyms (i.e. their, there)
  19. difficulty telling time with a clock with hands
  20. trouble with math: memorizing multiplication tables, memorizing a sequence of steps, directionality
  21. when speaking, difficulty finding the correct word: lots of what-ya-ma-call-its and thingies, common sayings come out slightly twisted
  22. extremely mess bedroom, backpack, and desk
  23. dreads going to school: complains of stomach aches or headaches, may have nightmares about school
  24. In High School
  25. All of the above symptoms plus:
  26. limited vocabulary
  27. extremely poor written expression: large discrepancy between verbal skills and written compositions
  28. unable to master a foreign language
  29. difficulty reading printed music
  30. poor grades in many classes
  31. may drop out of high school
  32. In Adults
  33. Education history similar to above, plus:
  34. slow reader
  35. may have to read a page 2 or 3 times to understand it
  36. terrible speller
  37. difficulty putting thoughts onto paper: dreads writing memos or letters
  38. still has difficulty with right versus left
  39. often gets lost, even in a familiar city
  40. sometimes confuses b and d, especially when tired or sick